Twisting smaller gauge speaker cable together?

I've been wondering about this for a little while, but I haven't been able to find an answer online.

I have quite a bit of generic 16 gauge wire that I'm not sure what to do with. If I take the smaller wires and twist them together, will they act as a larger gauge wire? Essentially I would be using 2 (or more) small cables in each run.

I've seen pictures online of some higher end speaker cables made like this, but I can't seem to find if there are any pros/cons to doing this. If there's no problems associated with wiring like this, ill get some head shrink tubing and some decent terminating connectors and make some budget speaker cables for a quick afternoon project.

Yes, paralleling the wires will lower the resistance and effectively make the combination a bigger gauge. I can't see any down side to this if you have the wire.

Go for it. If the 16ga that you have are in pairs (like lamp cord is) just use a pair for each run connecting the ends to each other. ====>--- thusly.

Kahoona said:

Go for it. If the 16ga that you have are in pairs (like lamp cord is) just use a pair for each run connecting the ends to each other. ====>--- thusly.

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Hadn't thought of this approach. A "Duh" moment on my part!

I haven't always been a proponent of expensive cabling, but the other day on my Bell amp with a 20 foot run to speakers I replaced 16g lampcord with 12g speaker cord. The speaker cord isn't necessarily "high end" - just a roll of stranded 12g copper speaker wire I picked up on sale somewhere.

Sound is a tad bit more open, and bass improved. Guage does matter!

No harm in going big! IIRC, twisting two 12 gauge lines together results in 10 gauge.

If you really want to "hog wild" you could separate the conductors into 4 strands then do a 4 strand braid to lower the overall inductance of the wiring. On a short run it probably won't make much difference but on a long run with speakers that have widely varying impedance across the frequency range it might.

Instructions for a 4 strand braid are out on the internet. Found them when I wanted to bake a braided loaf of bread. Still use them.

Shelly_D

Just finished the cables this morning. I started off with the intention of braiding the individual conductors, but when I couldn't even get through one "cycle" of the braid, I just decided to twist them together instead. I hope to get some heat shrink housing somewhere and really finish them up nicely.

I ordered the bananas plugs from Blue Jean Cable. I've never had banana plugs before, but I really like the easy and solid connection they make. The other cable is a generic 12 gauge cable with some flat pin type terminations, just as a point of reference.

Sorry about the piece of grass on the first picture, I should stop wearing my shoes in the house!

Well done

I read an article on speaker wire a few years ago talking about different monster cable, twisted pairs ect. The writer of the article stated he was a big fan of RS brand 16 gauge copper hookup wire. He said the copper content was very high for inexpencive hookup wire. And when two lengths were twisted together that it out performed many of the higher priced audio cable he tested. Reading this thread made me remember it.

fpitas said:

Yes, paralleling the wires will lower the resistance and effectively make the combination a bigger gauge. I can't see any down side to this if you have the wire.

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I had to read this post a couple times. The resistance of the wire won't change, the inductance might.

Steve88,
Nice work but now you're gonna have to follow up with some listening impressions. Improvements, base/treble, no change, etc.

Ray Kimber is mailing a cease-and-desist order as we speak.

Seriously, have you ever seen Kimber Kable 4TC? Looks just like yours.

Hajidub said:

I had to read this post a couple times. The resistance of the wire won't change, the inductance might.

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The total resistance will indeed change, to the resistance of a single wire divided by the number paralleled.

They look like a set of $3,000.00 speaker cable.......bet it sounds as good too.....Nice job!

Lavane said:

I read an article on speaker wire a few years ago talking about different monster cable, twisted pairs ect. The writer of the article stated he was a big fan of RS brand 16 gauge copper hookup wire. He said the copper content was very high for inexpencive hookup wire. And when two lengths were twisted together that it out performed many of the higher priced audio cable he tested. Reading this thread made me remember it.

Click to expand...

Maybe that is the reason my DIY White Lightning speaker cable sounds so good.

I haven't been involved in audio for a long time -- years of living in poverty will do that to ya...but I am slowly starting to get involved again.

One thing I learned 40 years ago is that wire gauge DOES make a difference with how speaker wires effect sound.

Here's how it started: At the time, I had just read an article on speakers and damping factor. (FYI, damping factor is the ratio of the speaker impedance to the output impedance of the power amp.) Power amps with a lower output impedance will increase the damping factor at the loudspeaker which improves the control that the amp has over moving the speaker's diaphragms. The lower the damping factor, the less control the power amp has over the speaker; the higher the damping factor, the more control the amplifier has over the speaker system. There's just one problem: the DC resistance of the cable between the speaker and the power amp can effect the damping factor.

After reading the article, I realized that the resistance of the connecting wire could have an effect on the sound if the resistance was significant. So I decided to try an experiment. At the time I was using 15' lengths of 18 gauge zip (lamp) cord for my speaker cables. It has a series resistance of .1 ohm per lead. I replaced it with 12 gauge wire cut to the length between the speakers and power amp - 7'. This has a series resistance of .01 ohm per lead - 1/10 that of the zip cord.

When I started listening to music with the new cables, my initial reaction was: "Where did all the bass go?" Suddenly my loudspeakers sounded bass shy, whereas they had sounded deeper and fuller with the thinner cables. After a little thought I understood what had happened: the series resistance of the wire not only affects the damping factor but also the Qtc of the speaker system. Increasing the resistance increases the Qtc, which creates a boost in the low bass and lowers the F3 of the system. Assuming my power amp had an output impedance of .05 ohm (not unusual for a solid state power amp), with the 18 gauge wire the damping factor was 8 / .05+.1+.1 ohms = a DF of 32. with the 12 gauge wire the DF increased to 114 a factor close to 4X what it previously was. I don't know anymore how it it affected the Qtc (I don't remember the math for that -- remember, it HAS BEEN 40 years!) but the difference was clearly audible. Once I listened to the system for a greater length of time, I realized that some of the low bass was missing, but on the other hand, the bass that was there sounded much tighter and had a lot more "punch" -- something that would definitely be affected by an increase in damping factor.

There were no "magic" or expensive cables involved, just something with a heavier gauge and lower resistance. FYI, if you twist both leads of a pair of wires together that are the same wire gauge, you decrease the gauge size by 2. Therefore two 16 gauge wires twisted together is the same as a single 14 gauge wire. Two 14's are the same as a 12 gauge and so on.

I hope this helps.

Litz wire, anyone?

My son made some nice looking cables... Sorry I dont have any Pics

1. Radio Shack 16g speaker wire Catalog # 278-1267

2. Two 10' runs for each speaker

3. Separate (pull apart) the white line single cable from the clear one. End up with FOUR single cables

4. Loose braid the 4 wires

5. Slide Techflex over braid

6. Last 6" on each end twist like cables together (white line + white line & clear + clear)

7. Slide heatshrink over twist

8. Terminate

I may have left out a step or two but I hope you get the idea. End up with about a 8' run for each side

Plenty of capacitance. Hopefully your amp is stable into a capacitive load.

Hajidub said:

I had to read this post a couple times. The resistance of the wire won't change, the inductance might.

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Paralleling two wires of the same wire size will resulted in half the resistance. Just think of the wires as resistors (they are) and use the formula for two resistors in parallel:

R= R1*R2/(R1+R2)

So for example if each wire (for convenience) has a resistance of one ohm:

1*1/(1+1)= 1/2 ohm.

Several posters have said that using two wires together will change the wire gauge by two. Actually, it's three. So two 16 gauge wires are equivalent to a single 13 gauge wire.